1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle door and a vehicle door module.
2. Prior Art
In general, a vehicle door includes a windowpane, a door main body, a window regulator and a sash. The windowpane opens and closes a window opening of an automobile. The door main body includes a housing space, which is provided under the window opening and which houses the windowpane. The window regulator lifts the windowpane between the window opening and the housing space. The sash comprises a first sash and a second sash, which, respectively, guide both sides of the windowpane in the housing space, and which are provided in parallel with each other.
The first sash and the second sash have a length extending from a windowpane lifting slot provided in a belt line of the door main body into the window opening. The first sash, the second sash and an upper sash extending between an upper end of the first sash and an upper end of the second sash form the sash to surround the window opening.
In the case of a so-called hardtop automobile without an upper sash, the window opening is formed at a location that is surround by the vehicle body and the belt line when the door is closed.
Parts for a vehicle door have been recently provided as a module to simplify the assembling process. An example of such a vehicle door is constructed as follows: A mounting opening is formed at an upper end, a lower end, a side end, an exterior side or an interior side of a door main body in advance. A module, which has a windowpane, a window regulator, a first sash and a second sash incorporated therewith through a base plate, is inserted into the mounting opening and is mounted to the door main body.
The base plate is made of a plate-shaped metallic material having a certain plane shape. The base plate extends between the first sash and the second sash. The base plate has door equipment, such as the window regulator, an inside door handle, a speaker, a door ratch, a room light, wire-harness, and different kinds of switches, fixed thereto.
By the way, the vehicle door is required to provide the base plate with complex uneven plane shape so as to be matched with the equipment including the window regulator provided thereat. Thus, the base plate is likely to be heavy, creating a problem in that it is difficult to reduce the weight of a door.
In order to cope with this problem, there is an idea of adopting a base plate made of resin. However, this idea creates problems in that dimensional accuracy lowers according to a change in temperature and a resin base plate has lower strength than a metallic base plate.
In a case where a resin base plate has an expansion ratio of 0.1% due to a change in temperature, an error of 1 mm is produced at the maximum when the distance between the first sash and the second sash is 1,000 mm, for instance. When the resin base plate supports a window regulator, the position of a window plate alters in the front and rear direction of an automobile to bring about malfunction in lifting the window plate and positional shifts of other equipment in some cases.
In particular, a window plate is usually formed in a curved shape, the window plate is a big part among constituent parts for a vehicle door, and the window plate has a wide sliding range. As a result, the occurrence of a positional shift of the window plate in the front and rear direction has great impact on malfunction in comparison with other equipment.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle door and a vehicle door module capable of not only making the assembling process thereof simple but also reducing the weight thereof, and improving dimensional and positional accuracy.